Tutorial: How to Paint Scorched Weapon Muzzles

All right. It’s been a busy couple of weeks, but I’ve finally been able to spend some time in the Dorn Studio. I’ve been trying to finish up a Land Speeder so I can move on to a tasty Dread, and she’s almost complete, the weapons being the last item on the list. Since I’m doing a Heavy Flamer/Multimelta combo, I thought that this would be a perfect time for a tutorial on how I paint burn effects on the muzzles on all my heat-based weaponry. I’m not the best painter in the world but, I’ve learned some cool tricks here and there to add a bit of realism to my models (and to draw attention away from other mistakes). So without further ado: How To Paint Scorched Weapon Muzzles or something to that effect……

Step 1:

Paint your weapon up as you would normally paint it. I like to add a lot of different metallics to mine as you can see. After adding all my base colors and metallics, I like to wash down the whole weapon with a Badab Black wash. I love the look of a black wash on Boltgun Metal as this makes the weapon look really used and not fresh out of the crate from Mars. You’ll find that I use washes extensively as I add more tutorials.

Step 2:

Drybrush some Bestial Brown over half of the muzzle. For flamers, make sure you even get a little bit on the pilot light. I like Bestial for this step. It’s a nice warm brown with kinda the “toasty marshmallow” color that we want for this. Now my “drybrush” was a bit wet for this so the color went on pretty solid, but it’s not a big deal as you’ll see in later steps.

Step 3:

Paint the business end of the muzzle black. This can be nice and solid. Flame shoots out of there, you know? There’s going to be a nice buildup of carbon on the end so it’s ok to make this nice and dark. Once again, don’t neglect the tip of the pilot light on flamers.

Step 4:

Drybrush black leading from the tip of the muzzle, back to about halfway over the brown. If you can blend nicely in this step, it always looks nicer, but once again, don’t sweat it. You’ll want it looking like this: From the tip, black, fading into brown, fading into metal. Kinda like a dark rainbow of burning death. Do this for the pilot light too.

Step 5:

To finish this up, I use a Gryphonne Sepia wash and cover the whole muzzle. This is for two reasons: First, it blends the colors together a little nicer than I can just by brushing the paint on. Second, the wash adds a slight dull film over the paint and makes the scorch look a little greasy. Let it dry and you’re good. Flamers and meltas after a long day of turning xenos and heretics into ash.

I also use this on the exhaust pipes on my Rhinos and on the engine cones on my Land Speeder, and I’m pretty pleased with the results. Feel free to experiment with the colors or to try it out on larger areas. If you use this method to make scorched terrain or armor, let me know if it works for that too.

Hope you all found this helpful. Feedback is encouraged so bring it on!